Nipperville Early Learning Centre in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory | Nursery

Nipperville Early Learning Centre

Locality: Canberra, Australian Capital Territory

Phone: +61 2 6241 1122

Address: 6 Gwynne Street, Watson ACT 2602 Canberra, ACT, Australia

Website: http://www.childrenfirst.com.au/index.php/Nipperville

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15.02.2022 Our Warrego room have been helping celebrate Lunar New Year this week! In a craft activity the children made their own individual lanterns with red paper and glittery gold paint. The children were very excited and proud with their final result! Outside in the yard the children joined educator Linda, participating in some Chinese drumming and dancing. The children watched Lindas example of traditional drumming and dancing and then excitedly had a go themselves. Other activit...ies this week included geometric shape tracing, with triangles and squares. The market stall stand outside was a popular area to engage with, as children role played shop keepers and customers. There was lots of requests for ice creams and other cold products to help cool down on a hot summers day! The prices at the market stall varied, with some really great bargains and some shopkeepers charging a little too much! See more

05.02.2022 The Yarra children this week have been continuing to settle into the room and welcoming new some more new friends to their group! The children have been engaging with craft such as paper plate koalas with grey paint and cotton wool. Sticking the cotton wool onto the paper plates for their ears, the children got a fair bit of cotton wool stuck to their fingers as well! Which they found funny and confusing! They have also been making some hand print and foot prints pictures. The children found this interesting to see their hands on the paper!!! Outside in the yard the children have been engaging with some musical instruments, some of the babies like to strum the strings and make quite a nice tune! Other babies prefer to drum on the guitar, banging on the bits surrounding the strings or trying to climb onto it! They are very curious!!

25.01.2022 Congratulations to Aidan who received August educator of the month! Aidan received this award in recognition of; his fabulous interactions with all children throughout the centre in his role as a floater- in particular his lovely interactions with children who have special needs, his willingness to step up in his job role and take initiative, his friendly personality and consistent hard work ethic. Everyone wants Aidan to work in their room! Congratulations Aidan.

25.01.2022 Like Latrobe, the Diamantina children have been noticing and discussing the change of season in recent weeks! The children and educators have been discussing the different colours that can be associated with Springtime, including pink, yellow and green. A number of the children have also noticed bees buzzing around flowers either in their gardens at home or in the yard. Educators have informed the children about the importance of bees in food production and how its great to p...lant lots of flowers to encourage bees and butterflies to visit your garden. But its always good to remember to be careful when you see a bee, as they can sting! As an extension upon these group and individual discussions/ observations, the children have been incorporating the Springtime theme into their craft times. In one activity, they used bubble wrap to dip into pink paint and create the effect of pink cherry blossoms on a tree. In another activity, they used cupcake holders to stick onto paddle pop sticks and made their own individual flowers. The children liked seeing the outcome of this activity, and they waved their flowers in the air like a magic wand! See more

25.01.2022 A snippet of Latrobe's skittle experiment conducted today! They used skittles, milk and washing up liquid to melt the colours from the skittles. They watched in awe as the lines of colour came from each skittle and then when adding the washing up liquid, it caused the colours to blend together and make a volcano effect on the plate!

25.01.2022 We began placing our Reconciliation hands into our main Reconciliation Garden today. The children of the older four rooms were excited to find their hand and pick a spot to place into the soil. They told their educators 'I remember painting this one!' 'Oh this one has blue and green paint on it' The Leichhardt children then placed their stones which they had decorated with Aboriginal symbols into the gardens. Throughout NAIDOC week the children had been learning about diff...erent Aboriginal symbols and were excited to then have an opportunity to paint their favourite symbol onto the stones. They found a big spot for their stones to sit amongst the hands and plants. We then placed our sign ''We show respect, we share this land. We walk together, hand in hand'' into the middle of the garden. When the hands from today were placed in, the children commented 'oh this looks nice with all the hands!" Our next stage is to weave some red, yellow and black yarn around the railings behind the garden as a backdrop. Children that attend on other days will also add their hands to the gardens as well throughout the week. Great job contributing to our Reconciliation Garden everyone! In addition we are going to plant our Pepper Berry plants into their pots this week. Educators Mary and Aidan did a great job in the gardens today as well, clearing the middle garden bed of weeds with the help of the children to make a home for some more native plants and Marigolds. We can't wait for these plants to bloom! See more

24.01.2022 Today at Nipperville we participated in a routine fire drill procedure! All 6 rooms participated in this procedure and the children reacted with a mixture of curiosity and caution when the whistle was blown and they followed educators and peers to our designated evacuation point. For a number of children this is a new experience and they adapted well. This experience lead to some discussions afterwards with the older children about the importance of participating in fire drills and what to do if you see a fire. We conduct fire drills every term at Nipperville to help prepare children and staff in the event of an evacuation.

24.01.2022 A special 'thank you' to Chris and Megan at Funky Brewstar, https://www.facebook.com/funkybrewstar/ who provided coffee and other hot/ cold beverages and an array of food platters, to serve the educators on their break times today. Our staff were so surprised when you started setting up this morning and were very appreciative of your friendly service and yummy food! PS. you also have a beautiful design on your coffee cups!

24.01.2022 Yarra/ Flinders/ Latrobe & Diamantina Reptile Inc incursion! The children in all of our rooms, welcomed some very special visitors this morning! Peter from Reptile Inc joined us, to provide an informative and hands-on learning experience surrounding the topic of reptiles. The younger children in our centre, reacted with a mixture of curiosity and excitement as they were presented with a variety of animals to gently pat. A number of the children giggled when meeting the lizards, as they stuck their tongues to say 'hello!' Peter explained what kinds of food the reptiles eat and that we should always remember when encountering any of these animals in the wild to stay clear! Thank you Peter for joining us today, as always you share such a wealth of knowledge and have a great rapport with the children.

22.01.2022 Latrobe room have been very creative last week, participating in a variety of art and craft activities. In one activity in acknowledgment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and culture, the children explored the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags. They pointed out different colours that they recognised and educators explained what each colour and the symbols represented. Some of the older children recalled prior learning surrounding the Aboriginal flag a...nd could remember that the yellow circle in the middle represented the sun- great job! The children incorporated this learning into a craft activity, whereby they used different coloured shapes to create their own versions of the flags. In some other craft activities, the children expanded upon their colour recognition skills. A lot of the children recognise colours such as green and yellow and were provided an opportunity to paint with these particular colours. See more

22.01.2022 We have had such Pirate(y) fun today, dressing up in big Pirate hats and printed bandannas. There was also lots of colourful stripes being worn. A number of the rooms also made their own pirate themed craft, with Latrobe making telescopes to spy other pirate ships/ crews with in the yard!

22.01.2022 1st week back with Leichhardt! Leichhardt room have been welcoming children who have moved up from Warrego this week and welcoming back some familiar faces with some of the children who have stayed on from last year. The children who have stayed on from last year have been a great help showing their new friends around the room! As a group the children have been participating in a variety of group games, such as an indoor parachute and ball game. In this activity they worked together to try and keep the ball from falling off the parachute. They had lots of fun making the parachute go up and down, moving the ball around!

22.01.2022 We have been welcoming some new fluffy friends to Nipperville over the past few days, as part of the Hatching Chicks program. The hatching chicks have been set up in Latrobe and Leichhardt and the children of all rooms have been excitedly and patiently watching the eggs hatch! The first eggs hatched on Tuesday and each day since children have been excited to see how many more have hatched and check the baby chicks are doing ok. We do also have some duck eggs which take a b...it longer to hatch but we are hoping to welcome some duck friends by the end of the week! The Hatching chicks program helps educate and engage the children with where chickens come from, what food they eat and how to take care of a baby chick. As the chicks grow strong, we will be able to pat them. And when the program is over and the chickens are strong enough we will be introducing them to our new chicken coop in the big yard! See more

22.01.2022 Happy 70th birthday to educator Anne! Anne turned 70 earlier this month, and today we held a surprise birthday lunch for her to celebrate this special occasion.

21.01.2022 Leichhardt children have been busy investigators this past week, conducting a plethora of experiments to expand their scientific knowledge. This year's theme for National Science week is 'The Deep Blue' and throughout group weekly discussions, the children have been learning about ways to help look after the ocean and the sea creatures that inhabit this environment. The children have come up with great suggestions on how to look after the oceans, including not littering and r...educing plastic waste. This litter can end up in the ocean and harm sea creatures. Earlier in the week, the children helped educator Cameron with a 'Walking water' experiment. This experiment showed how water can move up out of one jar into another through paper towel dipped into each jar. The children were fascinated with watching the paper towel turn the colour of the food colouring and then end up colouring the clear water on the other side! A connection was made through this experiment, to the way flowers can suck water up through their stems. This lead us to place some white flowers into coloured water and we will check on how the flowers are looking soon! The children also explored buoyancy, through a floating and sinking activity. They molded their own boat shapes with the aid of foil and eagerly placed their boats onto water, after guessing whether their creation would sink or float. They extended upon this activity, with collecting small toys and objects from the yard to take turns guessing. A number of children guessed correctly that heavier objects would sink and lighter objects would float! Finally, in an exciting experiment this afternoon Leichhardt made a DIY volcano outside! They used dish wash liquid, vinegar, baking soda and water. These substances combined, can create a lava effect that spews out of a bottle! The chemical reaction is the vinegar and baking soda reacting with each other, and creates a new product called carbon dioxide. The children found this experiment funny, as the lava bubbled and spewed out of the bottle! Great job Leichhardt! See more

21.01.2022 The Yarra children have been enjoying a variety of activities this past week including the indoor balance beam and a sensory paint experience. The children reacted with curiosity and caution when presented with the sensory paint activity but soon confidently mixed the paint colours around on top of the bubble wrap. They liked to pop some of the bubbles at the same time! This was a messy and fun activity! Some of the older babies have been gaining confidence on the indoor bal...ance beam, crawling to it and sitting on top proudly. Some of the children who are walking, enjoy going up and down each end or pushing a toy such as a car along the track. In Flinders, the children have been helping to transport the radishes to the garden bed and giving the gardens a water. Last week they also collaborated to make some yummy cupcakes for Mothers Day afternoon tea. The children curiously watched as educators measured out ingredients for the children to then pour into the mixing bowl. They then took turns mixing the ingredients together and spooning into the cupcake cases. Once cooled down from the oven the children took turns icing a cake. The children enjoyed this cooking experience and of course tasting! See more

21.01.2022 Diamantina children have also been delving into the world of science and discovery this week. Throughout the week, the children have been reading different stories about sea animals and are very good at identifying which animals call the ocean their homes! They have also been learning about the importance of 'reduce, reuse and recycle' when it comes to caring for the oceans. The children learnt that some litter and wastage can end up in the sea and injure the animals that liv...e there or it can wash up upon the shore. Recycling and reusing items can help counteract this damage. In their science experiments, the children have been colour mixing. They used red, green, yellow, orange and blue water paints and then droppers to suck the paint up and drop onto coffee filter paper. They then watched as two paints merged together to create another colour. The room extended upon this activity on another day, guessing what colours would be made from mixing combinations and then they used the mixed colours to paint with afterwards. They carried on the theme of mixing colours into a craft activity, making stain glass windows! See more

20.01.2022 Congratulations to Anne who received July educator of the month! Anne received this award in recognition of; her hard work ethic & reliability, for being a helpful educator for other staff members to learn from and for her established connections with children and families. Well done Anne!

19.01.2022 Leichhardt received a special envelope in the post last week and excitedly opened it to find some pictures from the residents at Canberra Aged Care! The residents wrote some lovely messages, and its clear they miss our visits as much as we miss visiting them. Hopefully in time we will be able to reconnect in person with the lovely people at Canberra Aged Care but in the meantime the regular correspondence and exchange of drawings/ messages, are warmly received by all.

19.01.2022 Today, we treated our staff to a special Christmas Eve lunch full of yummy flavour! From all of us here at Nipperville, we would like to wish our families both past and present and all of our wonderful staff members, a safe, happy and Merry Christmas! x

18.01.2022 Warrego have been working together with peers & educators to make a fairy garden for their veranda! Last week, the children took turns to fill a planter with soil using shovels and gentle hands. They then gently placed some plants into the fairy garden and covered with soil. Next, they added some ornaments including fairies and woodland animals. The children commented ' i like this fairy' and 'i like the mushrooms, they're spotty!' They also marveled at how the lights in the ...fairy house turned on and off. Once finished, the children throughout the week enjoyed playing gently with the fairy garden when on the veranda. They are also great at remembering the fairy garden plants need watering daily! As an extension upon the fairy garden, later in the week the children helped educator Teresa make a self watering planter. They filled a plastic bottle with soil, rocks and succulents to hang as decorations on the veranda. They also helped educator Sue, hang up some bird feeders in the big yard. Sue explained how these will encourage birds to visit and eat a snack throughout the day. The children have also been engaging with their weekly French classes. In particular they have been learning about the French names for the 4 seasons. 'Ete' for Summer, 'printemps' for Spring, 'L'automne' for Autumn and 'Hiver' for Winter. As an extension on this learning, Marie has also been focusing on different forms of weather. The children help by looking out the window and informing Marie of what the weather is like today! Lately, it has been froid (cold) and il pleut (raining!) See more

17.01.2022 The Warrego room have been continuing with their letter and number recognition this week, singing the alphabet song and using flash cards to recognize different letters. The children are focusing in particular on learning the first letter of their names, the first step to full name recognition. They have also been continuing with their colour recognition, working together with peers to create different colour collages in a collaborative craft activity. Outside in the yard, ...when the weather has been cooler in the mornings; the children have been enjoying construction with blocks and tiles and helping educator Aidan plant some seeds into an empty garden bed. The children took turns planting the tiny seeds into holes in the soil and then covering up. They then help water their seeds daily and will be checking on their growth as the weeks go on. Today, the children were invited to paint using the easels on the veranda. The children did a painting of their choice, with some beautiful mixtures of red and green or blue and purple paints chosen. See more

17.01.2022 Yarra children participated in a variety of science experiments last week, that developed upon their inquiry skills and garnered great curiosity! In one activity, the children mixed water, oil and water-colour paints in different plastic cups. They each got a turn at dropping a splash of colour into the cups and then watched the reaction as the ingredients mixed together and the colour dispersed through the water/oil. In another activity, the children explored absorbency with paper towel and paint. The children were encouraged to cover a sheet of paper towel with the aid of paint droppers and watched as the white paper towel quickly absorbed the paint colour from corner to corner! They showed great interest and amazement in this particular activity, as the paint was absorbed so quickly.

17.01.2022 A few weeks ago we celebrated NAIDOC week and commenced work on our Reconciliation Gardens. Reconciliation Gardens can help to develop upon the children’s understanding of the importance of place and connection to Country, that has valuable meaning in Indigenous Cultures. Through planting native plants and edible bush tucker plants, we can further develop upon this understanding by connecting the plant to its usage as a food source. Developing our Reconciliation garden invol...ved several stages, including researching native and edible plants and sourcing where to purchase these from local nurseries. Once we were able to source a selection of plants we thought about other additions to add to our gardens. We liked the idea of the children contributing through painting decorative hands in either Aboriginal flag colours or Torres Strait Islander flag colours. The Leichhardt children also painted Aboriginal symbols onto smooth rocks that would also be placed into our gardens. The decorative ideas evolved around the saying 'We show respect, we share this land. We walk together, hand in hand'. The next step came with the actual planting of the native plants! We had worked out where we wanted to locate our Reconciliation Garden and needed to transfer the preexisting herb garden to a different location. It was a team effort to transfer the herbs, as they had grown substantially! Our thanks to educators Mary and Helen for putting in the hard yards moving the herbs. We also had so many left over, we bundled these into batches for parents to take home! Once the herbs were relocated we concentrated on planting the natives into their new home. The children were a great help in both clearing the way for the herb relocation and planting the new plants. Educators explained what was happening and what new plants were being rehomed. We cannot wait for these plants to become established in our gardens! See more

17.01.2022 Today, Warrego children took turns practicing their soccer skills, kicking a ball into a net! They lined up patiently with their ball, whilst cheering on their friends. A number of the children got the ball into the net, and excitedly shouted 'hurrah!' The children then encouraged younger children from other rooms to join in the fun, helpfully showing them how to do it. Great teaching Warrego! Yesterday, the children got messy with a colourful craft activity, mixing colours into shaving cream. They mixed blue/ green/ yellow and orange into the cream and pressed paper over the top. The effect is then a printed pattern on the paper that is lifted up. The children enjoyed the experimental and hypothesizing aspect of this activity, experimenting with different colour combinations and guessing what the pattern would look like.

17.01.2022 The Yarra children have been creating lots of bright and colourful spring time craft recently, making their own cherry blossom trees and other bright and cheery flowers. In another craft experience, they experimented mixing a balloon in some green paint and then rolling the balloon over the paper. The children liked this sensory, craft activity as they were familiar with balloons but hadn't used them to paint with before! In other activities, the indoor cars have been popular as children imitate driving like their parents! There was lots of horn beeping! They have also been raiding the dress up boxes for some cute animal costumes to wear. Some of the older children correctly identified the animal they were wearing and made the corresponding noise. Well done!

16.01.2022 1st week back with Latrobe! The Latrobe room have also been welcoming some new faces with children moving up from Flinders this week and familiar faces with those staying on in the room from last year. Last years Flinders children were excited to explore the big yard and quickly found an area they were interested in playing in the most! The sandpit and slides are very popular! Educators have been working with the children this week to help settle into the room after the holi...day period and the children have also shown great interest in their name labels and in particular the Australian animals next to their names! A number of the children can recognise the native animal on their label and educators have been discussing with them all about the different kinds of Australian animals. The children are quick learners, with many of them already associating their animal with their name labels. Great job! See more

15.01.2022 Happy Father's Day to all the Dads on Sunday, from all of us here at Nipperville! The children have made some special gifts to take home this week to celebrate and we hope you have a fabulous weekend!

15.01.2022 Our Winter Charity Drive will begin this week and carry on until early July. Following on from the success of last years charity drive, we will again be partnering with Roundabout Canberra to collect donations for women and their families who are experiencing hardship in Canberra and surrounding regions. Their goal is to provide essential items and equipment to ensure the safety and wellbeing of babies and children. To find out more about the great work Roundabout do, please... click on this link to their website: https://roundaboutcanberra.org/ Please see below image for items Roundabout will accept, and if you have any of these you would like to donate please pop them into the designated area in our foyer. If there are any items not listed here that you would like to donate feel free to check with our office. Thank you in advance for your generosity. See more

14.01.2022 The Yarra children have been very creative over the past week. They have been experimenting with mixing colours together, such as white and pink to make red paint! The children were fascinated with this learning experience. They then used the colours made to use in their craft works. In one such craft experience, they used a roller to cover white paper with different coloured paint. The children enjoyed the way the roller moved back and forward! The children also made some wi...nter beanie craft, using cotton wool balls as pom poms. They liked to feel the softness of the cotton wool in between their fingers. The Flinders children have had a busy week too. They have spent a few afternoons visiting the big yard recently. The children reacted with curiosity and excitement to be in a new environment and with familiar educators they started to explore the new play areas. They particularly enjoyed being inside the cubby house, and making some yummy food for their friends in there! They were also excited to meet the chickens and eagerly pointed them out to educators. The Flinders room have also been creative this week and today helped make a hand print rainbow which is on display in the room. Some of the children correctly identified different colours in the rainbow as they were painting. Great job! See more

13.01.2022 Latrobe room have made a great start to Science Week! Yesterday, they did an experiment to mix colours into water using food colouring and clear plastic tubs. The children took turns guessing what colour the water would turn and reacted with excitement when they got it right! These coloured waters will be frozen into ice cubes and used later on for painting. In another colourful experiment, the children today observed how skittles, milk and dish wash liquid can make differe...nt colours! They poured milk onto a plate lined with skittles and waited with anticipation to see the skittles melt. The children (and educators!) were fascinated to see the lines of colour come from the melting skittles. They added wash up liquid and this created a volcano effect as the colours joined up and swirled together. A number of children commented on how the colours swirling together looked like an ocean! In other science related activities, the children explored magnetism using the hand held magnets. They were amazed at how some objects stuck to the magnets such as metal objects, whereas other objects did not. The children have also begun making their Father's Day craft last week. They cannot wait to give their gifts to the Dads! See more

13.01.2022 Flinders children had great fun expanding their scientific knowledge last week, participating in many colourful and imaginative activities. A highlight from the week's experiments, was their D.I.Y volcano, which looked fantastic even before the lava erupted! The children watched with excitement as educators Sangita and Jigme combined vinegar, water and a splash of food colouring into the volcano. They added the dish soap last in the combination to stop too many bubbles formin...g. They then stirred a baking soda and water mix until liquid and poured this into the volcano- the effect was a colourful lava erupting out the top. The children either giggled with glee or reacted with surprise as the lava spilled out! In another favourite science activity, the room conducted a Magic Milk experiment. This is where dish soap is dropped into milk and then colourful swirls are produced from drops of food colouring mixing in. The children enjoyed this activity, as it created a rainbow effect in the milk mixture and they could experiment with different patterns. Great job Flinders! See more

12.01.2022 Leichhardt room have been focusing on the countries of the world lately and the different cultures relating to these countries. This past week they have been learning about the African continent and gaining knowledge from maps and flags. Educators Lemlem and Janet have also been sharing their knowledge with the children about growing up in Ethiopia and Nigeria. As an extension upon learning about Africa, the children have been painting African animals in their craft times thi...s week. They each choose which wild animal they wanted to paint, with lions, cheetahs, elephants and rhinos being popular choices! The children did a great job of painting their own animals and were rightly proud of their creations. The Leichhardt children have also been practicing their yoga with educator Linda during their quiet times after lunch. Yoga has many benefits for young children, including developing balance & strength and helping manage stress and anxiety. The children enjoy replicating Linda's stretches and yoga poses and making up some new ones along the way! See more

12.01.2022 As many Canberrans return from Christmas and New year holidays, it is important to ensure that all of our staff and families stay up to date with the relevant state or territory’s public health alerts. As the situation interstate is constantly changing, it is important to check to make sure you haven’t been to any COVID-19 hot spots so we can keep ourselves, our loved ones and our community safe. For information on the COVID situation in Victoria please visit Victorian Depar...tment of Health and Human Services website at: https://www.dhhs.vic.gov.au/case-locations-and-outbreaks and for NSW please visit NSW Government website https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/latest-news-and-updates We advise all of our staff and families to follow relevant health advice and self-isolate for fourteen days if they have attended any hotspots. As a service we will continue monitoring our staff and children for any COVID-19 symptoms (fever, cough, sore throat, shortness of breath, runny or blocked nose - no matter how mild). We continue to ask all families to please keep your child at home if displaying any symptoms of illness and for our staff members as well to stay at home if unwell. Any person showing COVID-19 symptoms should remain home until well and contact your healthcare provider or the COVID hotline for further health advice. If a COVID-19 test is undertaken, please note staff and children must be excluded from the service until a negative test result is returned. For COVID-19 testing clinic locations in the ACT visit http://www.covid19.act.gov.au/.../symptoms-and-getting... We know these measures may affect some of you directly and come as a disappointing start to the new year. However, all of these measures are in place to help reduce the risk of an outbreak in the ACT and taking these measures now will help protect our staff members, children, families and our broader community.

12.01.2022 Sensory experiences with Diamantina! Diamantina room have been participating in a variety of sensory experiences over the past week.In one fun activity last week, the children explored mixing colours into shaving cream. They were excited to get involved in this activity, and squealed in glee at the feel of the foam in between their fingers! The children mixed red and white together to turn the foam pink and enjoyed mixing the foam all over the table. In today's sensory activi...ty, the children helped make some clay type dough by mixing flour and vegetable oil together. The educators then hid some insects in the dough for the children to find! They very excitedly searched through the dough to locate the bugs, including grasshoppers and worms! The children told their educators that the mixture feels 'silky' or 'like sand'! Outside in the yard, the children have been continuing to build their confidence on riding the bikes and enjoy some quiet time reading books with friends or with educators. See more

12.01.2022 Diamantina children this week experienced their first French class of the year with teacher Marie-Pierre! The children were a bit shy at first, as most hadn't met Marie before but as the lesson went on they warmed up to the teacher and told Marie their names proudly. During the classes this week Marie introduced the children to three different colours, red (rogue), blue (bleu) and yellow (jaune). Marie played games with the children and used flash cards to reinforce this new ...learning. We look forward to revisiting these colours next week. Outside in the yard, the children went on a nature walk with educators to gage what they could see, hear or smell in the environment surrounding them. The children found lots of leaves, sticks and stones to put in a basket and the most popular item they found were acorns! They collected a bundle of different sized acorns and educator Helen popped a smiley face on some of them! In their group times, educator Mel has been reading a variety of different books about animals and engaged the children with a song about a Great White Shark. This was complete with some action cards. The children liked this song a lot! See more

10.01.2022 Reptile Inc incursion with Warrego & Leichhardt! The children of Leichhardt & Warrego also received a special visit from Peter at Reptile Inc yesterday and his friendly reptilian pets! The children were excited to meet a variety of reptiles as they were provided an opportunity to gently touch and ask questions. They were surprised at how smooth the turtles shell felt and how big the goanna was! When the lizards stuck their tongues out at the children, they all giggled! Pet...er asked the children questions before bringing out each new animal so children could guess which one he was referring to. They guessed well! This incursion was a great hands-on learning opportunity for the children to develop further their reptile knowledge. Thank you Peter for visiting us again this year, you always provide such a interactive and engaging program! See more

10.01.2022 The Leichhardt room had a busy week last week, as they welcomed some new children to the centre and other children commenced their first week of preschool! To build upon the children's school readiness throughout the year, they have started on lots of activities to build pencil control. The children have been working on their pencil grip and following patterns from beginning to end. They have also been focusing on different letters of the alphabet and how to trace these lette...rs. In another activity, the children chose which alphabet letter to create using assorted shape blocks. They made a big capital letter and the smaller letter that corresponded. They have also been creating different shapes using the peg boards and elastic bands. The children enjoy the task of stretching the band around the pegs in different ways and seeing the shape that is created. See more

09.01.2022 Yesterday, the ACT government announced new restrictions for people who have been in the areas of Greater Sydney, Central Coast and Wollongong. A detailed list of locations covered by this direction is available here: https://www.covid19.act.gov.au/community/travel/nsw. For more information regarding this new Public Health Direction please click on this website link: https://www.covid19.act.gov.au/ Canberrans are advised not to travel to Northern Beaches, Greater Sydney or ...Wollongong areas until further notice. If you are needing to be tested for COVID, the following testing clinics are available in the ACT: - Weston Creek Walk in centre Respiratory Clinic - COVID-19 Drive through at Exhibition Park, Flemington Road - COVID-19 Drive through at Kambah - COVID-19 Testing clinic at Garran oval - West Belconnen COVID-19 testing clinic at Holt - Crace Respiratory Clinic For any of our families planning on travelling to any of the areas in NSW covered by the ACT Health direction, your child/ children will not be able to attend our service until your quarantine period has been completed upon your return. We know these measures will affect some of you directly and come as disappointing news for many who were looking forward to a Christmas break away with family and friends. However, the quarantine period is in place to reduce the risk of a COVID outbreak in the ACT and taking these measures now, will help protect children, families and the broader community both at Nipperville and throughout Canberra.

09.01.2022 Congratulations to Kim (from Diamantina) who received Educator of the month for April! Kim received this award in recognition of; her caring and nurturing manner, her friendly personality and hard work ethic. Well done Kim!

09.01.2022 Happy Mothers Day to all of our mums this Sunday! You all do a fabolous job 365 days a year, we hope you have a lovely and relaxing day this weekend Next week, we will post some photos from this afternoon's afternoon tea

08.01.2022 The children from all 6 rooms have been making the most of a quieter week, playing with friends and enjoying the sunny but not too warm days outside. Its been a bit easier to find a bike that is not already being used by another friend as well! A number of children are also sharing their excitement about Christmas with educators and peers. They cannot wait until Santa comes to visit!

08.01.2022 The babies of Yarra & Flinders have been creating some beautiful, green art work for World Tree Day last week. The Yarra children used their hand prints to turn into the brown trunk of the tree and then decorated the top with actual leaves and green paint- very clever! Flinders children also painted their hand prints but this time to create the green top of the tree and then extended with brown paint the trunk beneath. The children of both rooms were interested in touching an...d feeling the texture of different leaves between their fingers. Flinders children have also been helping educator Sangita in the gardens, planting some new seeds and using the watering cans for the daily watering routine. Many of the children remember during the day to check on the gardens to see if anything is growing and remind their educators to water! Great help! See more

08.01.2022 Celebrating Diwali with Latrobe! Latrobe was awash with music, lights, colours and tastes on Tuesday as the children helped educators Pushpa and Poonam celebrate Diwali. Diwali is the Hindu & Sikh festival of Lights, that is traditionally celebrated over 5 days each year. The children kicked of their celebrations by participating in a cooking experience, where they made Puri (fried bread), Aloo Dum (curry) and rice. The children carefully measured out the ingredients and to...ok turns mixing these together. Once cooked they enjoyed the dishes with afternoon tea. The Puri was a favourite and went well accompanied with the Aloo Dum. Very tasty! In between waiting for the food to cook and taste, the children and educators danced to traditional music. The educators looked wonderful in their colourful saris. The children also took turns holding LED lights, which they found fascinating as some of the lights changed colour. These LED lights helped symbolise- Diyas, which are small oil lamps and traditionally are used to decorate houses, public places and shops during Diwali. See more

08.01.2022 Flinders children have been making the most of Spring's arrival over the past week! They have been enjoying the warmer weather playing outside with friends. The mini cars have been popular, as children take turns inside driving around the yard and around obstacles. They beep the horn at some obstacles that can move out of the way (e.g. educators!), or have to problem solve their way around those obstacles that cannot move! Very good navigating skills. In late Winter/early Sp...ring, the children also helped educator Sangita plant some flower & vegetable seeds ready to bloom in the warmer months. The children listen carefully to educator's instructions about where to place the seeds/ plants and use gentle hands to cover with soil. Each day, the children enjoy watering the plants and remind their educators to do this important activity! They know the seeds need water to grow See more

07.01.2022 The children of Leichhardt have been very busy this month, with preparing for their upcoming art exhibition and completing their Fairy Garden on the veranda. They were invited by educators to make different crafts for their Fairy Garden area, including craft flowers and trees. These look vibrant and cheery up on display. They have also been helping educator Ferdous plant and care for a variety of Springtime flowers such as Pansies, ready to decorate their Fairy Garden with. In preparation for their upcoming art exhibition next month, the children have been showcasing their art skills to peers and educators. The children have been taking inspiration from nature and the change of season with lots of Springtime paintings being created. We cant wait to see the end result of these paintings displayed for everyone to see!

07.01.2022 We had a lovely turn out of mums, grandmas and aunties for last Friday's Mothers Day afternoon tea! The Leichhardt and Warrego children with the help of educator Josh, sang some songs for their special guests before treating themselves to some yummy food. All 6 of the rooms made some special treats for the occasion and the children were eager to share with their visitors. A special thank you to one of our mums Courtney, who made such yummy cookies for families to take home on Friday. We had such wonderful feedback regarding your cookies Courtney! You can check out more of Courtney's business via her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/sugarplumfairycakes.canberra/ We hope all the mums had a wonderful day yesterday!

07.01.2022 Congratulations to Cameron who received Educator of the month for January! Cam received this award in recognition of; showing great initiative and stepping up in the Warrego room with helping write daily journals and for growing so much in confidence from this time last year. Well done Cam!

06.01.2022 Diamantina room have been exploring the indoor camping set up over the past week. A number of children have prior experience going on camping trips with their families and so role played some activities they would normally do camping. In one such observation, a few of the children role played cooking on a camp fire using the home corner resources. They pretended they were roasting marshmallows- yummy! Some of the children brought some cushions into the tents and pretended the...y were going to sleep,after reading stories to friends and the dolls. Some children preferred to stay outside of the tent and spot some rain forest type animals hanging from branches above. The children have also been commencing Father's Day craft, they have started by planting seeds into individual pots which they will water daily until ready to go home. A number of children asked questions whilst planting such as 'when will the plant grow?' Educators explained that over time with regular watering and sunlight the seed will grow into a plant! Also this week, a spontaneous learning opportunity arose when some workers outside of the fence were managing one of the overgrown trees near the car park. The children watched with curiosity and glee as the workers set up the bright orange cones and used their equipment. Educators explained that some tree branches grow too big that they can be dangerous and need cutting so they dont fall or obstruct. See more

06.01.2022 Celebrating World Tree Day! Today all of our rooms celebrated World Tree Day, with different learning opportunities for the children to expand on their existing knowledge surrounding the importance of trees and nature. A number of the rooms participated in craft activities, whereby the children could create their own trees either using paint or different craft materials. The Yarra babies enjoyed getting messy with brown and green paint, spreading it across the paper! Warrego ...children collected seed pods from the gardens to help decorate their tree paintings and they discussed how the trees look different from season to season. The Leichhardt children discussed with their educators, what items could be made from trees? And the children gave great ideas such as 'paper' and 'tissues'. Both Latrobe and Leichhardt discussed with the children how some animals use trees as their homes. Animals such as birds, insects and possums. Leichhardt have also begun creating their own craft forest in the room, which they hope to add to in the upcoming week. The children and educators looked great dressed up in different shades of green and brown today as well! See more

06.01.2022 Tomorrow, is Early Childhood Educators Day for 2020! This special day recognizes and celebrates the work of Australias educators in early learning centres, kindergartens, preschools, family day care & outside school hours care. Its a chance to say thank you to Australias early childhood educators on a personal level by service operators, families and their children, as well as collectively at the national level. To find out more information regarding this event plea...se click on the following website https://earlychildhoodeducatorsday.org.au/ In our foyer area, we have some 'thank you' leaves to write a special message of gratitude to your child's educators. You can then hang these up on the line above. We invite all our families to participate in this activity, which will be available for the next week or so. In previous years this activity was such a success, with so many leaves being hung up! We were all uplifted by the beautiful comments from families that were left. Thank you in advance Internally, we will also be holding a special appreciation surprise for our staff!

05.01.2022 This week was Latrobe & Leichhardt's turn to help Aaron from Pallet Play with making a mud kitchen! It was a rainy, windy day on Monday so we had to improvise and move the mud kitchen workshop indoors. Aaron introduced himself to the children and explained what they would be making. The children showed great curiosity in what Aaron was saying and the different tools he had with him. Some of the children confidently stepped forward to help Aaron with some the drilling and gluing activities. The children marveled at how the mud kitchen came together and were proud that they helped create something that can be used outside in the yard! Thank you again Aaron, for sharing your time and expertise with us.

05.01.2022 Today, we say 'farewell' to educator Sue who is moving interstate with her family. Sue rejoined Nipperville last year working as a floater throughout the age groups. This year she has been an integral part of the Warrego room. We would like to thank Sue for her contribution to the centre and we wish her family all the best for the future. You will be missed.

05.01.2022 The Flinders children have been very creative over the past week, painting their own handprints with blue paint. The children enjoyed this sensory activity, as they felt the paint in-between their fingers and under direction printed their hands onto the paper. When taking their hands off the paper, they were excited to see the end result. In another craft activity, the children enjoyed doing dot painting with a fine paint brush onto hands. This activity used the children fin...e motor skills as they held the brush and moved it in the direction of where they wanted the paint to go. This week the children will be making their own decorations to celebrate Lunar New Year! The children will use red and gold paint to create their own lanterns and garland. Outside in the yard, the children have been enjoying some quiet time on the mats with books and reading with their educators or browsing through the pages individually. The bikes and stepping stone buckets have been popular activities as well. See more

05.01.2022 Latrobe room have been celebrating the change of seasons, taking inspiration from the beautiful colours of nature around them! The children have been discussing cherry blossom trees and how they see them when walking with family and driving in the car. They have taken this inspiration into their craft times, which see the children making their own versions of Wattle and Cherry blossoms. They have also been helping their educators with the daily watering of the gardens and planting some new seeds in time for Spring/ Summer. The children are very good at remembering to take care of the gardens.

05.01.2022 Don't forget to wear something green or brown tomorrow, for World Tree Day!

03.01.2022 The children of Yarra and Flinders have been very artistic this past week, using a variety of different resources to create paintings with! In Flinders the children used some craft rolls that had been turned into a mop type shape at the bottom, to swirl brightly coloured paints onto paper. This created some lovely flower and circle patterns when printed. In Yarra the children have been using stamps to print pictures onto paper. They like to push down on the end and pull the stamp back up. The children of both rooms have been enjoying playing outside in the sand pit, feeling the texture of the sand in between their toes and fingers and trying to make some sandcastles with the aid of educators.

02.01.2022 This past week in Latrobe the children have shown a great interest in birds, through observations in the yard and retelling of experiences seeing birds on their weekends out and about! The children had lots of questions for their educators such as 'what do birds eat?' and 'What type of bird is this?' The educators set up an exploration table in the room whereby children could read some bird related picture books and play with the toy birds set out. In one activity this week, ...the children collaborated to search for twigs, leaves and feathers in the yard. Once collected, these items would help form a nest. They later made a birds nest out of soft clay. The children commented on how 'sticky' the clay felt when molding into a nest and then later on how 'dry' the clay was when finished. In another activity, the children made their own individual birds using craft rolls and colourful feathers! These birds are nestled in some branches displayed in the room. See more

02.01.2022 Warrego children have also been exploring the scientific world and expanding their knowledge this week. On Monday they welcomed one of their parents Karen, who is a Marine Biologist. Karen asked the children 'what animals can you find in the sea?' The children had great answers such as 'fish', 'shark' and 'whales'. Karen in particular has been studying turtles and shared with the children ideas to help turtles. She asked them 'what do turtles eat?' The children had some fun ...ideas such as 'carrots' and 'pizza'! Karen informed them that one of the things they eat is seaweed and that sometimes they can confuse plastic waste in the sea for food. This reiterated the importance of looking after the environment, as turtles can swallow plastic bags which end up in their tummies and can make them sick. The children enjoyed Karen's visit and each received a sea creature sticker after the incursion, they proudly showed these off and talked about their newly acquired turtle knowledge to friends and educators. Thank you for sharing your time and expertise with us Karen! There has also been plenty of experiments conducted with Warrego this week. Educator Alex engaged both Warrego and Leichhardt children in a number of science experiments outside. In one activity, he conducted a salt and fresh water experiment. He coloured a jug of fresh water, blue and a jug of salt water,red. He explained that you should only drink the fresh water because the other would be too salty! Alex then showed what happens when fresh water meets salt water, by pouring the red water in a separate cup and then slowly pouring the blue water on top. The children watched as the blue water sat on top of the red water. This is because the salt has dissolved making this water heavier. Alex also conducted other experiments, including showcasing water absorbency. To keep with the 'Deep Blue' Science week theme, the children extended this into a craft activity this week. With educator Tess, they had learnt about jellyfish and that some jellyfish glow in the dark under the sea! The children then had opportunities to create their own jellyfish from paper bowls and UV paint. The children chose their own neon colours and used wool as the tentacles. These will be colourfully displayed in the room when dry! The children also learnt the importance of not touching a jellyfish if they encounter one on the beach or in the sea- they can sting! See more

01.01.2022 Early Childhood Educators Day 2020! To celebrate and recognise the vital role our early childhood educators play in shaping young minds and the level of care they provide; we surprised our staff with an appreciation gift and yummy food today! Each of our staff members received their own personalised mug and a 'teacher inspired' decorative cookie. Our thanks to The Cookie Cutter (Karen) https://www.facebook.com/thecookiecuttercbr/ for designing such beautiful treats. You always do such an amazing job! Our appreciation leaves are starting to grow in our foyer as well, thank you to those families who have already written a special message of thanks. The leaves will be available for the next week or so. The staff members do enjoy reading these uplifting comments

20.12.2021 Latrobe and Diamantina children have been enjoying their past week full of art & craft activities, focusing on Australian native animals and lots of outdoor play! The Latrobe children started their week with some stamp painting, creating different shapes on paper. Circles are a popular shape that were correctly identified and the children were very excited when they spotted this! They have also begun their craft activites for celebrating next weeks Lunar New Year, they will l...ook to finish and add to these next week. In one art activity outside the children used the easels and spray bottles to spray paint onto paper. This created a fun, colourful and messy effect as the paint dripped downwards!! Diamantina children have been focusing on Australian native animals this week, the children are great at identifying well known animals such as kangaroos and koalas. In their craft times the children used drippers to drip water colour paint onto coffee filters. They used red and blue paint and the colours when dropped started to mix together to make a more purple colour! The children enjoyed the inquiry element of this craft activity, as they guessed what would happen when the paint dropped! Outside in the yard, both rooms have been continuing to enjoy checking on the chickens to see if they have laid any eggs and collecting these if found. The hula hoops and balls have proved popular these week, with the children either rolling the hoops along the ground to a friend or practicing keeping the hoop up! In the sand pit, sand castles have been successfully made!! See more

02.12.2021 The January newsletter is out now - with articles on our updated COVID-19 webpages, starting 2022 with a shared understanding of quality and play-based learning resources for the sector and families. Read more at https://bit.ly/32DxSgC